A wide variety of bicycle carriers have been developed for transporting bicycles on exterior surfaces of a motor vehicle. Frequently, such bicycle carriers are secured to an existing vehicle article carrier component, such as one or more cross bars of an existing vehicle article carrier supported over a roof portion of the vehicle. This requires the user to lift the bicycle up onto the roof of the vehicle and then to secure it to the bicycle carrier. As will be appreciated, this typically requires some form of step stool or ladder, in addition to a fair degree of physical strength to hoist the bicycle overhead onto the roof of the vehicle. Often, two individuals are required to perform this step. Removing the bicycle requires the same steps but in a reverse order.
Present day vehicles such as sport utility vehicles and minivans now can be used with a vehicle article carrier having an article supporting portion which can be positioned over the liftgate of the vehicle. It would be highly desirable to provide a bicycle carrier that is adapted to be secured to this article carrying portion of an existing vehicle article carrier such that a bicycle could be loaded onto the bicycle carrier without the user being required to lift the bicycle up onto the roof of the vehicle. Allowing the bicycle to be loaded onto the bicycle carrier while the user is standing on the ground would significantly ease the loading and unloading of the bicycle from the bicycle carrier. Furthermore, in many instances it would enable a single person to load and unload a bicycle from the bicycle carrier.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a bicycle carrier specifically adapted for use with existing vehicle article carriers which include an article carrying portion disposed over a liftgate of the vehicle. More specifically it is a principal object to provide a bicycle article carrier adapted to be used with such an existing vehicle article carrier as described above, and wherein the bicycle can be rested in a vertical orientation on a portion of the bicycle carrier by one person, while the same person secures the frame of the bicycle to the bicycle carrier. Such a bicycle carrier would significantly improve the ease with which a single person can load and unload a bicycle from the bicycle carrier.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a bicycle carrier as described immediately above in which the components which engage and support the bicycle can be folded into a compact arrangement when the bicycle carrier is not in use.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a bicycle carrier, as described above, which does not interfere with operation of the liftgate when no bicycle is being supported on the bicycle carrier.